I'll build us a castle made of childhood dreams
by The Crownless Queen
Summary: "Marry your best friend," Molly tells her children. For Ginny, that's Luna. Gift for thingstogoandplacestodo.


**I'll build us a castle made of childhood dreams**

Luna doesn't have a lot of memories from _before_.

 _(_ before _being what she calls the days when she still had a mother, when her family and her mind were still whole, when she could still_ remember _her childhood)_

There is a handful of glittering, beautiful moments that twinkle in her mind like pieces of shattered glass, some as short as a flash of her mother's face, smiling, others longer, painting entire scenes like masterpieces, varnished with the wistfulness of childhood.

She doesn't know what happened to the rest of them, if they're lost forever or simply hidden from her somewhere, if a creature snatched them away one night when she was slipping or if it's just another way for her mind to cope, but she'd gotten used to it.

She cherishes what she has, never dwells on what she had, and always – always – clings to that handful of beautiful mementoes with all she has.

One of those is of a sunny summer evening that she spent running around with Ginny, chasing after fireflies, hand in hand and promising to never let go.

And when Luna had said that one day Ginny would get married and want to hold Harry Potter's hand – because even then, Harry was the fairytale prince Ginny dreamed about – Ginny had taken one look at her and declared that she had two hands, so they could all be married together, because what is marriage to a six years old girl but the promise of an eternal friendship?

It feels almost like a dream, _after_ , only more real.

 _(Ginny and Luna had sworn so many promises back then, but most of them they never had a chance to keep)_

 **.x.**

Playing with Luna is one of the best things about Ginny's childhood. The boys never want to do what she wants to do, or they say she's too fragile to do what they do – as if! One day she'll show them – and her mother is always so busy, so Ginny knows that she'd feel terribly alone without Luna around.

Luna's the one who understands, the one who'll play the dragon so that Ginny can rescue her captured prince, and she's the one Ginny wants to keep in her life forever.

Luna doesn't even make fun of her for reading stories about Harry Potter, and for writing his name next to hers in all of her books. Clearly, she's perfect, and her mother said that love and marriage was about finding the perfect person for you, and that's Luna, but it also has to be Harry Potter, so of course she has to know, has to be sure.

Maybe that's why the conversation she had with her mother after ambushing her while she was cooking breakfast one morning, when dad has either left already and the boys are still sleeping, comes back so often in her dreams.

"Mum, can you marry two people at once?"

"I don't think that's quite how it works, Ginny dear. Why do you ask?"

"Well, you said we should marry our best friend, cause that's what you did with dad, and Luna's my best friend, but I really want to marry Harry Potter too," Ginny explains.

"Hmm… And does Luna want to marry you?" Her mother replies, the spatula pausing in the air. There's a note of something in her tone that Ginny never quite manages to pinpoint that she doesn't understand, but it doesn't feel good.

 _("Of course," she replies in her dreams, when the memory fuses with wishes she can only half comprehend)_

"I haven't asked yet. Do you think I should?"

"That's always better dear, yes," her mother says with laughter in her voice. "But to answer your question, no, you can't marry two people at once."

"Oh…" Ginny sighs, disappointed. "But why?"

"You'll understand when you're older."

 _(she sees Luna less and less after that, and it takes her years to link that fact to this conversation)_

 **.x.**

Ginny doesn't understand when she gets older.

She forgets for a while though, because time passes differently when you're young, and when she stops seeing Luna after her mother dies (and that's so unfair, because why can't anyone see that Luna needs her?) she focuses on other things, like her books and Harry Potter, who will never leave her.

Who can't, because he's a paper book hero.

And then there's Tom, whom she trusted and who betrayed her and tried to kill her, and that's all she'll ever say about him.

But the years pass, until it seems like all of a sudden Luna and her are friends again and she's dating Harry, only it's nothing like her childhood's fantasies.

She loves him, she knows she does, but… But it seems so pale in comparison to what she feels for Luna, for this girl who speaks another language and lives in her own world and yet feels so strongly about _this_ world, who fights even when she doesn't have to, when she could choose to let the people who hurt her burn.

 _("Marry your best friend," Molly had told all her children, and for Ginny that's still Luna, even if Harry is a_ verygood _friend)_

She misses Luna most of the time she's with him, and whenever she sees something she wants to share with someone, her first thought isn't of him, but of the blonde Ravenclaw.

She's a terrible girlfriend, especially since she only dated other boys to make Harry like her, and she tries to be better, but nothing changes the fact that the only reason she's not relieved when he breaks up with her is that it means he's going after Voldemort and doesn't think he'll be back.

 **.x.**

They talk a little, before Bill and Fleur's wedding, a few minutes stolen away from the preparations.

"Do you remember how I said I'd never leave you when we were kids?" Ginny asks hesitantly once, as they rest under the shade of the tent her parents had erected earlier for the guests.

"Yes," Luna hums, her eyes suddenly focused on Ginny's face instead of the air above them. It's weirdly exciting, and Ginny feels a shiver run down her spine.

There are a hundred things Ginny could say now – apologies for inadvertently lying, promises that she still meant what she had said then and more – but the words stay stuck in her throat.

Instead, she takes Luna's hand in hers and holds it for five, ten, fifteen seconds.

 _(she could do this forever)_

"Save me a dance, will you?"

"Did the Nargles get you?" Luna asks, concerned, after a few seconds of silence.

"No," Ginny laughs. "No, my head's never been clearer. Will you dance with me at the wedding?"

Luna seems oddly intent on searching her face for a few moments, but finally she smiles, and oh Merlin, it makes Ginny's heart race so fast she wonders how it's still inside her chest.

"Alright. We'll dance."


End file.
